Desktop
2008-09-16 17:43
Yeah, I’ve been distro hopping for a while. Especially recently, after Ubuntu started sucking. But anyway, I’m now on Arch.
Don’t think I’ll be checking out anything else for a long while. *Crosses fingers*
Here’s my new desktop, Jay approved:
And here’s two new pieces of art, thanks to my discovery of xournal!
Debian Lenny, lite
2008-08-27 19:13
Openbox is pretty cool. I’ve got a setup with Openbox, Trayer, Tint, Noteo, Xcompmgr (need shadows :P). Totally dropped Compiz, who needs effects when I need to GTD? That and I want quick and snappy. With my integrated ATI Radeon Xpress 1150 card, that’s definitely not possible. It supposedly supports Vista Aero, but hahahahaha oh god no it doesn’t.
Debian sans Compiz works pretty well. Incredible, really. I barely use my memory.
I’m debating whether or not to have a screenshots gallery. I think it’s stupid, since they’re all just snapshots to say “THIS WORKS” instead of “THIS IS PRETTY”.
Anyway.
Notice I have all Linux screenshots. Windows is pretty standard. Go figure.
I need something to control the volume instead of just alsamixer. For some reason my openbox keybind for “amixer set Master 2%+” doesn’t work? Maybe that percentage sign is confusing the crap out of the rc.xml file.
Here’s the wine config snappy. Area04 theme, GIYF.
To hell with it
2008-08-24 20:26
I’m a skeptic by nature. I’m a cynic, I’m pretty bitter, and I usually think humanity mostly sucks. Time and time again, I know in the end this lack of faith in the world around me is just because I don’t believe in myself. Or something.
However nauseatingly cliche’d it really is, “BEEEELIEEEVE IN YOURSELF AND YOUR DREAMS WILL COME TRUE!!!!!” might be for real. There are bright spots in my life where I think “I’m going to be a healer. I’m going to be a warrior. I’m going to be so spectacular.” And then about a day later, I wake up and realize, no, I’m not a God. I’m not even a notably good human.
I’m impatient, yes. I lack focus, I’m as petty as anyone else could be, I stink up the whole place with my carbon dioxide, I eat not nearly enough as I should but probably still more than my parents’ people back in their homeland, and I don’t appreciate all the things I have. I’m wasteful, I leave my computer on all day so I can look up information I’ll probably never use. I’m not intelligent, I weave together facets of a very esoteric and neurotic life, coming off smarter than I look because I put together facts from Wikipedia and talk about things about 2% of the population actually cares about.
Don’t talk to me about art. It has a shelf life of maybe a day or so before it goes stale. I keep wanting to do things over, and do, which makes me wholly ineffective at Getting Things Done Right. I usually push through and say “well, I’m okay with it now”, and then cringe (very literally curl inwards and look away) when I see it again.
I’m just too much of a goddamn perfectionist. I should just stop giving a damn about how people act, what people do, and enjoy what enjoyable company I can get and give people plenty of room for mistakes (since I myself can be rancid at times). I should stop giving a damn about how things look now, because everything now will go to suck in 5 years, but that should say “improvement” more than anything.
I should stop believing in Perfection, that intangible idea of trying to get some thing or place that’s purposefully out of reach at any time, in any situation. I do like to think something actually being perfect invalidates the idea of perfection. (Confusing concept? Let’s just say I think “perfect” means “impossible”. If you have something that IS perfect, you have done the impossible, which means it was never impossible.)
But everyone and every thing has the capacity to be better. I can believe in Better.
Goodbye For Now
2008-08-09 21:13
I should really stop posting personal stuff in Avatar. Separate places, separate faces I need to put on.
But I don’t know. It’s 1am, my brother and his wife will be getting up in 3 hours and leaving for the Grand Canyon at 5am, just a minor stopover until their final destination, New York. How long he’ll be staying in the Big Apple, even he doesn’t know. He can’t come home for Christmas, it looks like.
I kinda think I’m up this late to stay up, to see him off.
We said our goodbyes all ready, he didn’t think I should wake up to say goodbye. I held up better than he did, I think. He’s got the longest journey ahead of him.
And I’m just the selfish little sister that wants him to stay. But I know better that to say that to him.
At least his wife will be there. And at least I know he’s only 3 timezones away.
Tianne' - the Cintiq
2008-07-27 13:05
Finally, pictures (proof) of the rather hefty purchase. Reminded by an old friend, thanks :P
This tablet is girly, and so I named her after my Warrior Priestess of Destruction, Tianne’
And there you have it.
One sexy mama. (The tablet, not me)
Impulse
2008-07-15 13:05
Maybe it was an impulse buy, maybe it wasn’t, as I’m guessing Jay and I have been talking about it ever since I showed him my simple, white tablet, the cheapest and most common about 3-4 years ago. My dad got that for me, because I asked, and really, it made my day 3-4 years ago.
Well, it’s been acting up lately, in both Debian AND Windows. The sensors haven’t been picking up that my pen has left the tablet, and so there are lines and squigglies that… I didn’t draw. Same goes for erasing.
It didn’t help that I dropped my computer on it’s side, where the tablet was still connected to the USB port. I’m great at accelerating damage. Oy. -_-
So, just about yesterday, we were talking about the best tablet – the kind with the LCD monitor attached. Like a tablet PC, except for artists. (I’m totally not hardcore, by the way). And then we (he) decided to get it.
A wacom cintiq 12wx is going to land on my doorstep on Thursday.
And I’m going to savor every bit of it.
I know it seems like I’m probably taking advantage of my boyfriend’s generosity. Maybe I am, I tried to say “I can stretch out the life of the little tablet I have now for a while longer”, but that really didn’t hold much water, because I wanted one, and because he knew I wanted one, and because he wanted me to enjoy doing my thing more than please me by buying expensive gifts (‘cause that actually doesn’t work with the twisted gift guilt logic I have), and I wanted to make better art for him. We’re the kind of couple that tries to go beyond material things, though we’re both computer nerds in different ways.
In other words:
Lani: I’m anxious in this, I’m sure anyone would be, but I’m not so much excited in getting it as I am anxious to see if it’ll live up to your standards. Or rather, that I’ll live up to your standards o_o
Jay: My standards? o_o My hope is it pleases YOU. :P
I’m going to take pictures of the unboxing, and sketching.
And I’m going to make it worth every penny.
Ignorance vs Stupidity... or is it Bigotry?
2008-07-11 15:22
I’d imagine sitting around and being angry — is depression with motivation — is also sort of unproductive.
So I thought I’d take another stab at being artful with literature, and writing up a summary of the day.
How it started was promising. I thought to myself, “Hey, I’ll be nice today and have a day with no complaints coming from my mouth.” (as rare as it is in the first place) What I got was some kind of Karmic slap in the face, as I realize there is no amount of kindness that can change certain types of people.
I’ll focus on a rather important part of the day, and summarize it the Mastercard way.
- “Expensive” workout shirt bought with “good money” at Ross THREE YEARS AGO: $10
- “Expensive” workout pants bought with “good money” at Ross THREE YEARS AGO: $15
- Bitching at the end of the day about how your daughter slept in, then cleaned the garage (at your request), then helped you cook (at your request) while in those clothes, while you never said a word about your distaste during those activities, calling her “desperate looking” ‘cause only God knows what the NEIGHBORS MIGHT THINK: Senseless.
Clothes usually last at least a good 5 years for me. I’m pretty sure a lot of people would have more than ONE SET OF CLOTHES by then. Yelling at me because I spend all day at the computer, yeah, I understand that. But yelling at me because you like clothes and other people’s assumed opinions better than your own daughter, no, no I don’t get that.
And yeah, I am a 20 year old female who “doesn’t know how to cook.” Except I do, because there are recipes, and I’m an engineer — I don’t fuck up recipes. What I do fuck up on, it’s because you tell me to do “whatever” to some piece of meat you plop in front of me. I’m a very dual-natured girl – an artist and an engineer, but even my creative side knows better than to throw shit together (without the 40 years of knowledge on how things work in the kitchen) and hope for the best.
But I comply, and I cooked it as I could, at your word-for-word request that “I can do anything”, only to have you say “You should have cooked it this way.”
And you don’t even care for the way I want to cook, which is: less oil, more ingredients (too bad we don’t HAVE more than 3 ingredients that aren’t all crazy Asian and only work in certain configurations), more milder spices for flavor rather than burn.
But no. You don’t care for it.
I wish there was a way to normalize our differences, to show just how much more competent I think I am, but I can’t because it wouldn’t be fair. But I know that difference, and you don’t even want to understand that I’m not you. Or ever will be. Or ever will WANT to be.
Terminal
2008-07-07 14:12
I didn’t stick with Sabayon for long. Imagine Ubuntu, except more hardcore, slower, and even bulkier.
Okay, I admit it, I’m an eye candy junkie, sort of. That previous Ubuntu screenshot with all those ridiculous python widgets? Yeeeeah…
Well, honestly, all I want is the compiz effects. Ubuntu was getting heavy, granted made worse by my additions, but it was always heavy to start out with.
Soooo, I did something I’m sure other people have done: I downloaded Debian Lenny (testing ATM) netinstall, only installed the base, then set up ndiswrapper using files on my USB key for wireless (since my house is entirely wireless). Then downloaded everything else.
And now I’m just keeping tabs on my packages, I’m trying to keep it under 1000 out of the 22k available. I like the fact that I don’t need Gnome. I really like xfce because it’s more modularized, and is more or less a window manager with panels, thus lighter. I haven’t yet set up my printer or scanner (though I’m not using it so much), but it’s certainly going to be done sometime.
- Alternatives to Gnome apps:
- Mirage replacing gthumb/eog
- ePDFviewer replacing Evince
- Aptitude (yay console) to Synaptic
- Sonata + MPD to Rhythmbox
I have a console window open nearly all the time.
And I think it’s fun, oddly enough.
Spoke too Soon
2008-06-23 08:07
Unfortunately, I keep forgetting that my family does things in the last few days of the actual event. I keep having to clean things the week of, when things (at least in my head) should be more relaxed. My dad’s at work, my mom took the week off (much to my dismay), my brother’s engagee, my brother and I are working on… cleaning chandeliers.
As much as this house is… pretty, I guess… This house is awfully gaudy. I hate it, we uncovered so much crap when we were cleaning the porch, and it just doesn’t make sense to me why we have so much stuff and use it just once.
It’s like how the US, as far as I can tell, probably has the highest amount of diet pill advertising. And storage units, the kind where you put all the crap you never use into some commercial BIN and pay for the space monthly, even though you COULD just donate all the crap to people who actually would use it.
Have we consumed so much we need to buy more consumer products and services to help us reduce our amount of shit?
I know this question has been asked a million times. It’s still frustrating.